Crossing through waters - Nov. 11-15

Not the most recommended method of baptism, but in a pinch it could do. :P

What a roller coaster the people of Israel were on this week in our reading of Exodus! It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to be there with them at that time. They saw God move in some amazing ways. Even more amazing to me is that in these ways that God was powerfully providing for His people Israel, He was also pointing to the coming of Christ. For example, the manna from heaven. God leads His people into a desolate place, and then God provides food for the them out of nowhere, how similar is that to Jesus and the feeding of the 5000?

The main portion of this last week’s reading I would like to talk about though is the parting of the Red Sea.

But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses. - Exodus 14:29-31

This is such a clear picture of baptism. Of course this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a picture of baptism in the OT and it won’t be the last either, but think about Noah and the ark, or more recently Moses in the basket in the river. In these stories we see God make a way for His people to pass through water, to be saved or separated from evil, and to receive new life.

Many years later we see John the Baptist, as well as the Apostles, bringing believers through water as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What a powerful event this is in our Christian lives and I love to line it up to Israel’s passing through the Red Sea. Israel was proclaiming their faith in God by passing through a parted sea, Christians are proclaiming their faith in God and the work of Christ by passing through the waters of baptism. Israel’s bondage to Egypt was left in the bottom of that sea and they emerged as God’s freed people. Christians come out of baptism cleansed and as a new creation, once dead in sin now made alive in Christ.

Now we know of course that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus and not by baptism, but it is still a crucial part of our walk! A common trap today for Christians is thinking that baptism is just an old fashioned, legalistic practice, or that you need to be “spiritual enough” to be baptized. But we don’t see this in scripture. Time and time again we see those who repent and profess faith being baptized almost immediately (no training sessions required), whether it’s the Israelites passing through the Red Sea, or new believers being dunked by the Apostles.

Baptism is a public declaration and symbol of our death to sin and new life in Christ (Romans 6:3-4). Why wouldn’t it be one of the first things that we do? It should be one of our most beloved aspects of the Christian life and most encouraged steps for new believers. For the rest of us that have already been baptized, let’s be like Moses and the Apostles and lead them into the waters.